Automotive vehicles frequently use mechanical remote control assemblies to open various covers, such as hoods, trunks, and fuel filler doors. Such assemblies use a cable, often called a bowden wire, in which a flexible central wire slides through an outer sheath. The sheath is stationary, and has to be securely supported along its length to a panel of the vehicle body. Retainers for such cables generally include a cable receiving passage and a latch that fits tightly into an aperture in the body panel. A different retainer is necessary, depending on what part of the cable is being supported. If the retainer is supporting the cable sheath only, then a constant diameter cable passage is used. If the retainer is supporting the end of the cable, where the thinner center wire exits the sheath, then a stepped diameter is needed.
A recent example of such a retainer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,770 to Webb. The retainer shown there can be installed only in one direction, and, having only one cable receiving passage, cannot serve multiple functions. The cable retainer shown there is integral to the cable sheath, although versions do exist in which the cylindrical cable receiving passage is open along its length, on the side opposite the latch, giving it a C-shaped cross section. This allows the cable to be snapped into the passage, rather than being threaded through end to end. However, the sides of the open passage have to be made very stiff and inflexible, because if the cable snaps out, it loses all retention to the panel. Another drawback of the design is that it contains numerous overlapping surfaces, which would prevent it from being molded by the so-called bypass or axial draw technique.